Snippets

Marshall is growing by the minute! He's now 11 months old and is really developing a fun personality. He's getting really playful and can get around like a champ by crawling or cruising along the couch. He's shoveling as much food in as we give him and pretty much eats whatever we do. He thinks his brother is hilarious and loves waving to him when he goes on buggy rides at school.

Check out the fun he had at Monkey Joe's last week:



Speaking of hilarious brothers, here are some Miles story snippets:

Me: "Miles, how did you get so big?"
Miles: "Because I growed up and had all my birthdays!"

Miles (while watching the Butler/Valpo basketball game): "He's not wearing any shirt!"
Me: "Yeah, crazy frat boys. Are you going to be a crazy frat boy like that when you're in college?"
Miles: "Noooo..."
Me: "Are you going to be in the band?"
Miles: "Yep." (Thinking...) "No, I'm not going to be in the band, I'm going to be a football player!"
Lord help us...

During bedtime prayers: "Mommy, I'm turning to the wall, but I still love you and I still think you're pretty."

Me: "Do you want to wear your overalls tomorrow? Grammy got them for you and she would love to see you wearing them."
Miles: "Those big pants? I'll look like Steve Urkel!"

Me: "Tell Daddy what you told me about Bible Time today."
Miles: "I don't remember..."
Me: "What happen with the jailors? When the locks fell off? The earth..."
Miles: "There was an erf-queek."
Daddy: "An earthquake? What happened?"
Miles (paraphrased): "Well, the Cat in the Hat is inside the earf, and he kept turning this ham machine and it made a queeking sound, and that was an earf-queek."

Miles, out of the blue: "Mommy. Daddy doesn't listen to you."
Me: "I know! You're right."
Miles: "I listen to you. Marshall listens to you. But Daddy doesn't listen to you."

Brothers!

My Funny Valentine, Sweet Grumpy Valentine

Oh, how times have changed.

I like to think I've been a low maintenance wife when it comes to Hallmark holidays. I've enjoyed some wonderful gifts, some candlelit dinners, some fancy chocolates...

But as nice as all of those were, they still weren't as lovely as the first Valentine's Day with three Valentines. I got a nice bouquet of flowers, yet that's a monthly occurence in our house (isn't he the best?). We had nice sit-down meal as a family...of Applebee's takeout ($5 after tip, minus gift card). Jason and I enjoyed some quality time together, snuggled on the couch watching Butler basketball (I fell asleep at 9:00).

It was not overly exciting, but it was just a good day to remind me of how lucky I am to have my Valentines. Marshall was pretty grumpy most of the morning and evening. I couldn't manage a very good picture of him in his Snoopy shirt, but it's the same one Miles wore.

Miles was his normal goofy self. My favorite story of the day...

I've been trying to teach Miles that, unless the person knows you're being funny, it's rude to stick out your tongue at someone. When he did that during Valentine's dinner, I gave him the evil eye. He immediately said, "Sorry. I meant to stick out my bottom and shake my booty instead." Yeah...cuz that's better. :-)

In long overdue video news, check out the boys' new YouTube channel.

What's Happenin'

I hate to take the tone of the cheesy family newsletter, but, well, that's just what cha gotta do when you only blog once a month. Here goes...

Marshall is getting to be such a big boy! As always, he's pretty darn smiley, even when the poor kid gets pink eye and an ear infection and teething at the same time!

He now has two "vampire" teeth poking through on top - looks like they aren't the front teeth but the ones on either side. Good thing, because he's been eating all kinds of big boy food! Other than cereal, he's pretty much off the baby food and eats whatever we eat. He eats chicken, black beans, Cheerios (of course), and many other things, but his favorite is spaghetti sauce!




Marshall is also babbling a lot. He has what seems to be a pretty good handle on "dada", although he did look at the TV the other day and call Mitt Romney his dada. Hmmmmm...

He's cruising pretty well along furniture and enjoys "walking" while holding both hands. Here's a video of both...and a close call of a potential wipe out!

Miles has been continuing to do very well at pre-school. The latest news is that he has "two girlfriends and one boyfriend": Scarlett, Maleah, and Collin. Thankfully, Scarlett is back in his good graces, I guess after coloring me a picture at school (always suck up to the mom...works every time). At once point in time, they had apparently broken up because, according to Miles, she "told too many stories."

Miles has about 50 toys from Christmas that he hasn't touched more than once, but he's really been enjoying his Transformers. He's also been doing lots of imagination play, especially when it comes to Super Heroes. We spent the better part of tonight, includiing our trip to Jimmy John's, pretending to be Batman (Miles), Robin (Marshall), and Wonder Woman (Mommy). Luckily I didn't have to literally dress the part because, as Miles says, "Wonder Woman doesn't wear a shirt - she just wears underwear." OoooK.

Miles' biggest Big Boy Change is that he's now taking swimming lessons at the Y. He has been truly fantastic! My goal by the end of the 7 weeks was simply for him to be in the water without me. By his second lesson, he had already jumped in by himself and gone under water. Last week (only lesson #3), I didn't have to get in the water at all with him. Then again, it helps that he has private instruction, being the only one who signed up for the group class!

Jason and I have been keeping busy with work and trying to take in as much of the Indy Super Bowl hype as we can. We went downtown last weekend to check out the Super Bowl village and will probably get down there tomorrow for a little bit. The fates have been shining down on our fair city with temperatures in the 50s all week...if only we could avoid the rain tomorrow. It has been so fun watching Indy being painted in such a great light at the national (and sometimes world) level!



P.S. Happy 60th (or 120th) birthday, Pops! Yep, Papa is so special that he gets to celebrate two birthdays every year!